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This article discusses the guidelines to copyright materials. Under U.S. Copyright law, material copyrighted prior to September 1906, or published more than 28 years before the present date and for which the copyright has not been renewed, is in the public domain. Material published after September 1906, and for which the copyright if necessary has been renewed, is still in copyright. Permission to reprint or reproduce such material must be obtained from the copyright holder. There is no absolute rule governing the use of quotations because publishers' practices vary so widely. The rules governing drama and poetry extracts provide even fewer exact guidelines. To be certain that the author and the publisher are properly protected, obtain permission for all selections taken from poems, plays, or songs. In reprinting articles or long portions of a book (as in an anthology), it is easy to overlook the internal quotations used by the original author.